Citerra Finance offers patient loans up to $50,000. What are its terms?

Who this is for

This is for the physician or medical professional who owns a plastic surgery or aesthetic medicine practice that sees self-pay cosmetic patients, such as a dermatology office, a cosmetic dentist or a med spa. It also serves the operations lead who chooses which lenders the practice works with and coaches staff on presenting them to patients.

What we found

Citerra Finance is a patient financing company. It lists loans of $1,000 to $50,000 for elective surgery. Its website pages, dated 2022, give terms of 12 to 84 months and annual percentage rates (APRs) of 0.0% to 23.99%. Its provider page says a practice pays no fees to enroll. The Better Business Bureau (BBB), a nonprofit that grades businesses, lists the company in Hubertus, Wisconsin, and rates it A+.^1,2,3,4

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reports that people paid $1 billion in deferred interest on healthcare purchases from 2018 to 2020. Deferred interest is charged back to the purchase date. That happens when a promotional balance is not paid off in time.⁵

How common are medical credit and health care debt?

Many practices already contract with a lender. A 2025 study indexed on PubMed Central, the National Institutes of Health's archive of journal articles, counted 180,311 unique US practice locations. In dentistry, 67.0% of locations contracted with financial firms to offer medical credit cards. Podiatry came second, at 45.7%, then chiropractic at 29.7% and physical medicine and rehabilitation at 25.5%. Dermatology came fifth, at 20.5%. The study lists cosmetic medicine by count alone: 15,590 locations offered the cards. Orthopedic surgery came eighth, at 8.7%, and emergency and critical care had the lowest share listed, 0.2%.⁶

Most providers offer a payment plan, but many hospitals skip outside partners. PayZen, a patient payment plan company, sponsored a 2025 survey of more than 200 finance professionals by the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA). Among hospitals, 62% did not work with third-party financing partners for extended-term payment plans. Just 7% of providers offered no payment plan at all. Providers collected 24% of billings. Patient billings are the amount owed after insurance.⁷ For more about what carrying a plan in-house costs, see in‑house plans.

Many patients already owe on a health care bill. KFF, a health policy research nonprofit, surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,375 US adults in 2022. In that survey, 41% of adults had some debt from medical or dental bills. So did 26% of adults in households earning $90,000 or more.⁸ On our reading, a higher-income cosmetic patient may already be paying down another health care bill when a practice presents a loan.

What loans does Citerra Finance list for elective surgery patients?

Citerra Finance lists loans for a wide range of elective procedures, cosmetic and otherwise. Its home page names plastic surgery, cosmetic surgery, breast augmentation, and hair loss replacement. The list runs further. It also names bariatric surgery, dental procedures, fertility, knee and hip, gender affirmation surgery, and tattoo removal.¹

Applying does not touch a patient's score, by the company's account. The home page says an application "will result in only a soft inquiry of your credit report and will not impact your credit score."¹

Citerra Finance's FAQ page says approval takes about 10 to 45 minutes. It says the rate "depends on your credit score or the cosigner's credit score." It also says patients may finance part of a bill.⁹

The company describes itself as "your advocate for surgical care." Its home page says the team "will work directly with your doctor" so the patient can focus on treatment.¹

How does Citerra Finance pay a practice, and what does enrollment cost?

Citerra Finance pays the doctor directly, according to its FAQ page. The patient then repays the bank each month.⁹

The provider page sets out the steps after approval. Citerra Finance works with the patient to secure the paperwork, then sends an approval form to the physician. "The bank will verify and send funds to Citerra," the page says.³

Enrollment costs a practice nothing, by the same page: "We do not have any fees in having you enroll in becoming a provider of Citerra Finance." New providers receive a package of brochures and business cards to pass out to patients. The page says a practice is "under no obligation to use Citerra Finance as your sole agency for financial purposes."³

On the company's pages, dated 2022, two questions stay open: which bank funds the loans, and whether a practice pays a merchant fee on each financed case. A merchant fee is a cut of each financed sale that goes to the lender. For more about other lenders' merchant fees, see patient financing.

What has the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found about medical credit offered through providers?

The CFPB found that most of these products reach patients through their providers. Its 2023 report says they are "mostly marketed to patients through their medical providers but serviced through financial services companies." Their terms vary greatly and may cover bills as low as $35 and as high as $40,000.⁵

Deferred interest drives much of the cost. In the same report, people used deferred-interest cards or loans for almost $23 billion in healthcare expenses from 2018 to 2020. The report says these products "are typically more expensive than other forms of payment due to the higher interest payments."⁵

A 2022 blog post from the bureau on patients pushed into medical payment products says these products often carry interest rates "exceeding 25%." It adds that the deferred-interest feature "is commonly misunderstood by consumers."¹⁰

The bureau's consumer guide warns patients about promotional periods. Once a period ends, lenders charge "much higher interest rates" on any remaining overdue balance. If a balance remains or a payment is missed, "interest will accrue on the full amount charged."¹¹

Three agencies have since looked at these products together. In 2023, the bureau, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Treasury Department announced an inquiry. It covers costly credit cards and loans offered to patients for health care costs.¹²

What did the CFPB order CareCredit to refund in 2013?

In December 2013, the bureau ordered GE Capital Retail Bank and its subsidiary CareCredit (now part of Synchrony) to refund up to $34.1 million. The order concerned deceptive health-care credit card enrollment. The bureau said more than 1 million consumers were potential victims of misleading practices.¹³

Most CareCredit borrowers were on the costliest terms. About 85% of them were placed in a deferred-interest plan, which CareCredit called "no interest if paid in full." CareCredit assessed 26.99% annual interest on the balance throughout a promotional period of six to 24 months. If any portion was unpaid when the period ended, the consumer owed that interest.¹³

What we would do

1. We would ask Citerra Finance, in writing, to name its funding bank and any per-case merchant fee before enrolling. A practice should know who holds its patients' loans and what each financed case costs it before staff present the option.

2. We would request a sample loan agreement for a 0.0% offer and have the practice's lawyer review it alongside the provider terms. Whether interest is deferred decides if staff present that offer at all, and how they describe it.

3. The bureau urges patients to weigh other ways to pay before agreeing to medical credit. We would have coordinators describe the practice's own deposit and payment options before naming any lender.

4. The bureau has heard of patients offered payment products while incapacitated or unable to decide clearly. We would only present financing at the consult, never on procedure day or near sedation.

5. We would run Citerra Finance beside our current lender for one quarter, logging approvals, declines and booked procedures for each applicant by lender. That record shows whether keeping a second lender is worth the staff time.

About this review

In November 2026 we read thirteen sources. They were four Citerra Finance pages, one Better Business Bureau profile, and five CFPB documents, one issued with HHS and the Treasury. The rest were one peer-reviewed study, one HFMA survey write-up sponsored by PayZen, and one KFF survey. We name the publisher beside each data point and do not add, subtract, or average numbers across publishers.

The Citerra Finance pages date from 2022 and describe its loans and provider enrollment. The BBB profile dates from 2021. The CFPB report covers deferred-interest medical borrowing from 2018 to 2020. The CareCredit order dates from December 2013. The 2025 study covers US practice locations. The HFMA survey polled healthcare finance professionals in 2025, while the KFF survey polled US adults in 2022.

Fractional Aesthetics is a growth strategy practice for aesthetic medical businesses.